Kingdom of Lesotho 'Muso oa Lesotho (Sotho)
|
|||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|||||
Anthem: Lesotho Fatše La Bontata Rona
Lesotho, land of our Fathers |
|||||
Location of Lesotho (dark blue)
– in Africa (light blue & dark grey) |
|||||
Capital and largest city |
Maseru 29°28′S 27°56′E / 29.467°S 27.933°E |
||||
Official languages | |||||
Ethnic groups |
|
||||
Demonym |
|
||||
Government | Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy | ||||
• King
|
Letsie III | ||||
Pakalitha Mosisili | |||||
Legislature | Parliament | ||||
Senate | |||||
National Assembly | |||||
Independence | |||||
• from the United Kingdom
|
4 October 1966 | ||||
Area | |||||
• Total
|
30,355 km2 (11,720 sq mi) (140th) | ||||
• Water (%)
|
0.0032% | ||||
Population | |||||
• 2009 estimate
|
2,067,000 (144th) | ||||
• 2004 census
|
2,031,348 | ||||
• Density
|
68.1/km2 (176.4/sq mi) (138th) | ||||
GDP (PPP) | 2016 estimate | ||||
• Total
|
$6.017 billion | ||||
• Per capita
|
$3,133 | ||||
GDP (nominal) | 2016 estimate | ||||
• Total
|
$2.096 billion | ||||
• Per capita
|
$1,091 | ||||
Gini (2015) | 54.2 high |
||||
HDI (2015) |
0.497 low · 160th |
||||
Currency | Lesotho loti (LSL) | ||||
Time zone | SAST (UTC+2) | ||||
Drives on the | left | ||||
Calling code | +266 | ||||
ISO 3166 code | LS | ||||
Internet TLD | .ls | ||||
Estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected.
|
Coordinates: 29°36′S 28°18′E / 29.6°S 28.3°E
– in Africa (light blue & dark grey)
– in the African Union (light blue)
Lesotho (i/lᵻˈsuːtuː/; li-SOO-too), officially the Kingdom of Lesotho (Sotho: 'Muso oa Lesotho), is an enclaved, landlocked country in southern Africa completely surrounded by South Africa. It is just over 30,000 km2 (11,583 sq mi) in size and has a population slightly over two million. Its capital and largest city is Maseru.